It is to be appreciated that any discussion of documents, devices, acts or knowledge in this specification is included to explain the context of the present invention. Further, the discussion throughout this specification comes about due to the realisation of the inventor and/or the identification of certain related art problems by the inventor. Moreover, any discussion of material such as documents, devices, acts or knowledge in this specification is included to explain the context of the invention in terms of the inventor's knowledge and experience and, accordingly, any such discussion should not be taken as an admission that any of the material forms part of the prior art base or the common general knowledge in the relevant art in Australia, or elsewhere, on or before the priority date of the disclosure and claims herein.
Cutting machines are extensively used in industry for cutting shapes from bulk material. The shapes are usually fed into an automated process where they are formed or incorporated into a finished product. A wide range of materials are cut using automated cutting machines, including leather, paper (eg BOP, EVA, kraft and brown paper), film (eg diffuse, shading, light-increasing, reflecting), cardboard, composites, industrial textiles, fabrics of natural fibre or synthetics, polymers, silicone and soforth. These materials are typically supplied as one or more sheets or from a roll.
For example, in the garment and shoe industries, automatic systems have widely replaced manual cutting because efficiently provide large numbers of identical, accurately out fabric pieces with minimal material wastage.
Automated cutting systems include a computer controlled cutting tool. The desired shape is programmed in a format that can be read by the computer system. The cutting tool may be guided by the computer cut a single layer of material, or multiple layers at the same time. The material is typically laid flat on a horizontal cutting surface.
Many different cutting tools are used in automated cutting machines, including a wide range of knives and other cutting tools including creasing tools, passepartout tools, universal drawing tools, raster braile tools, electric oscillating tools and soforth.
Knives used with cutting machines typically include, for example, round knives, V-knives, drag knives, slitter knives, oscillating blades, hollow drills, reciprocating blades and sorforth. The type of cutting tool used will depend on a number of factors including the characteristics of the material. The cutting tools may be passive or driven in directions corresponding to the two dimensional shape required. Some cutting tools (“high ply cutters”) are used for high volume, low cost goods such as garments and upholstery where high accuracy is not required. Other cutting tools (‘low ply cutters’ and ‘single ply cutters’ are used when greater cutting accuracy is needed, such as for lower volume, higher value goods.
In order to maintain smooth, efficient and accurate cutting the cutting tool must be sharp. With extended use, cutting tools become blunt and must be replaced with a sharper cutting tool.
The cutting tool is typically changed manually by an operator using a tool but this has several drawbacks including:                the need to halt the cutting process for a period of time, thus reducing productivity,        potential occupational safety risks for the operator handling sharp cutting tools,        the need to utilise devices such as screwdrivers, wrenches and spanners to remove the blunt cutting tool and attach the sharp cutting tool,        the difficulty of accurately mounting replacement cutting tool,        potential misalignment of the cutting tool.        
Accordingly there is a need for improving the operation of cutting systems of the prior art.